Le Figaro Nice
Almost a year to the day after the revelations of a potential illegal waste export system from Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) to Spain, investigators carried out a search on Wednesday morning in offices in the Nice metropolis. .
Proof that the investigations are continuing and even accelerating, but also of the complexity of the case.
At the end of January 2023, a report from the program “Capital”, broadcast on M6, retraced the journey of rubbish coming from a sorting center in Nice (in Contes precisely) which went to Zaragoza, in Spain.
To reach this conclusion, GPS chips were placed in certain objects and journalists managed to film the trucks dumping their skips into an open pit thousands of kilometers from the Côte d'Azur.
Certain vehicle stops would have made it possible to cover the trail of such a practice.
The metropolis of Nice, through its president-mayor, Christian Estrosi (Horizons), had made a report to the prosecutor and had alerted the prefecture regarding this process, claiming to be a victim.
The Nice prosecutor's office had withdrawn responsibility and left the matter to that of Marseille.
A judicial investigation was subsequently opened by the specialized public health and environment center.
The investigation had since been entrusted to the gendarmes of the central office for combating attacks on the environment and public health (OCLAESP), a judicial police service.
As surprising as it may seem, it was Christian Estrosi himself who indicated that a search was underway on Wednesday morning in the metropolitan offices of the service responsible for the collection and treatment of waste.
On his Threads account and in a press release, he even explained that
“the metropolis is pleased that the investigative actions are continuing to be able to confirm the materiality of the unacceptable facts”
.
“I thank the prosecution
,” he said, hoping that the investigation would shed
“all the light”
to allow the community
“to obtain compensation for the damage suffered
. ”
Read also Uncontrolled construction dump: judicial investigation opened in the Alpes-Maritimes
“Replace everyone’s role”
The Nice councilor further explained that this search was subsequent to the
“transmission of documents necessary for the manifestation of the truth”
.
But as a search always occurs by surprise, it also means that the investigators did not have all the elements in their possession and that everything was not provided to them, as a judicial source explains to us.
“We place the role of each of the actors in the diagram, the aim of the search was to see who knew
,” she confides.
The Nice Côte d'Azur metropolis maintains that it wants to become a civil party.
When this potential scandal was revealed, Christian Estrosi hastily organized a press conference to clear the ground.
The elected official explained that this only concerned 8% of the city's waste and only those that it could not recycle itself, i.e. 27 tonnes per year.
The Marseille company Enso was responsible for doing this since May 28, 2021.
This company, for its part, placed the blame on a subcontractor, also from Marseille, who allegedly lied about its way of operating.
The Nice magistrate was concerned that other territories were also affected by these illegal exports abroad.
After three searches in 2023 for other files (the construction site of the Iconic building, the management of post-storm works Alex), this is a new visit by investigators to community premises (city and metropolis ) administered by Christian Estrosi.